A time for updates

Last year, at this point in the year, I was giving regular updates about everything from orientation and my first day of school to the new friends I had met and what I had eaten for lunch. Wow, things have changed.

Nowadays, blog posts about my daily life in Madrid seem obsolete… what once seemed like a great adventure has been converted into the norm. Going to the grocery store is no longer a major achievement and little neighborhood discoveries (like the La Ventana Ecológica, an everything ecological store next door to my apartment) no longer seem blog-worthy. (Okay, maybe that one was.) But at the same time, my life does not consist only of weekend adventures and I don’t want to present it as such. So in attempt to recapture my beginning blog spirit, here are a few life updates…

Orientation. Some friends asked me if I even had to go this year; the answer is yes. I think it’s a given that most of the sessions (about grant conditions, what Spanish culture is like, etc.) were not incredibly insightful, but orientation was nevertheless quite productive. Since I am the Global Classrooms mentor, I led a few sessions and was awestruck when the new Fulbrights scribbled down a great deal of what I said. Then I remembered that last year what the returning grantees had said was like gold. After all, why suffer through every aspect of life in a new city, country, culture, if you can get suggestions from people who have “been there, done that”? Thus, my initial fear of putting them off with lengthy, dense sessions subsided. Throughout the three days I also got a chance to mingle with all the grantees over meals, introducing myself and learning a bit about them. Like last year, we are an interesting mix, coming from all walks of life. As everyone settles in, it will be exciting to see the many different ways they make Madrid their own. (If you are interested in seeing pictures, feel free to check them out on Fulbright Spain's flickr.)

First day of school. I guess I’m not a real teacher yet because I didn’t have first day of school nightmares. Instead I was quite tranquila and got to school on my first day with little idea of what the day would look like. Not surprisingly, it started with Joe, the new Fulbrighter at my school, and I having a café con leche in the canteen… not, unfortunately, in La Plaza Mayor. (Props if you understood that joke! If not, look here to get an idea of the speech that disgraced most Spaniards and went viral. If you speak Spanish, check out this video to get a few extra laughs). Anyway, rather than give us schedules and change them 7 or 8 times like last year, our coordinator decided to just not give us schedules. So, over the past two weeks, we’ve gone as teachers beckoned and enjoyed our down time being social in the canteen. The rest of the assistants will come this week and then we’ll be a little more settled. Perhaps at that point I will be answer the most popular question that I’ve gotten from students, “Are you going to be in our class this year?!” I think most of them were hoping that I would answer, “Yes”, but I’m sure there were a few that meant, “You aren’t going to be in our class again… right?” After all, I’m pretty sure I was the only assistant that assigned homework last year… not typically the best way to win students’ hearts. On another note, I passed a former student during recreo yesterday that I swear grew 10 inches over the summer. So that’s why adults always said, “My, you’ve gotten so tall!”

New friends. To be honest, right now I’ve spent most of my time reconnecting with the friends that are still here: Mark & Annette (friends from church), Carmen (my intercambio), Erica (a fellow Michigander), Lauren & Brock (the other returning Fulbrighters), and miscellaneous friends from Karen Daft Centro de Danza. Orientation was, of course, crazy with people trying to find roommates and travel buddies but since I was already mostly settled, I didn’t really try to fit in with any of the newly formed groups. I didn’t feel the sense of immediacy. But then last weekend, sitting in my apartment at 11 PM on a Saturday night, I began to realize the reality that life was different now. Napala and Dan aren’t around to spend a relaxing evening watching Juan’s card tricks or doing puzzles. But, in attempt to leave space for meeting new people (hopefully more Spaniards) throughout the year, I am committed to not filling my schedule from the get go. We’ll see how it works out.

What I ate for lunch. Yesterday I made a pisto, something I have gotten much better at since my time on the farm, where I did a lot of cooking on the farm. This probably isn't blog worthy unless I have a drool-inducing photo though....

As I’m getting my life in order, I’m realizing how much life is about finding balance, all sorts of balance. Yes, I should reestablish a balanced diet: proportionate servings of fruits and vegetables and grains instead of whatever I can grab in between classes. But as I'm getting my kitchen stocked up again, I realize that it is just as important to have a balance of new foods and favorite foods and foods that remind me of sitting down at our wooden kitchen table with my family. With that idea, I am again trying to find balance in the idea of home being dispersed between Hershey and Holland and Madrid. As memories of Sevilla drift farther away and become “when I was studying abroad” stories, life in Madrid strengthens its status as the norm, so much so that the journey home for Christmas no longer seems worth someone coming to pick me up from the airport in NYC. Skype dates are getting scheduled once again and I have been less consistent staying in touch with people who mean the world to me. I need to find a way to hear about their lives and talk about mine without dreading the Sunday afternoons sitting in front of my computer, dealing with dropped call after another and becoming drained emotionally, wishing I could just spend a few hours hanging out on the couch at home or in LJs social studying. This reminds me of the balance of traveling and staying put, not just in and out of the United States, but in and out of Madrid, in and out of Spain. At house church this past week we talked about our priorities and what things we sacrifice for others and I realized that these past few weeks, I have maintained a pretty equal balance. Some nights I turned down working out for the chance to go out for drinks with friends, other days I turned down teaching extra private class in order to skype. Yet other days I have opted to stay at home, doing work over long lunches and going for leisurely runs in the evenings. I think balance isn’t about setting fixed priorities, but rather letting situations dictate decisions. As much as I wanted to be social and go out during orientation to hang out with the new Fulbrighters, I couldn’t. I was emotionally taxed with meeting and greeting so many different people and I just wanted to go home to get 8 hours of sleep before the sessions the next day. I don’t want to live my life always expecting that there will be another chance, but with some things there will be and if I don’t take care of myself, I won’t be ready to throw myself at the opportunities that are truly fleeting. Nevertheless, I think I also have to be aware of my tendency to stress out about all of the work that I have to do and my habit of overloading myself with unnecessary work. I remember when the Hope College chaplains reminded us gently that it was okay to say “No” and I am keeping that in mind as I turn down an excess of private classes. I need to leave time for life to happen and to remember that when it comes to work, “It will all get done” (another Hope College mantra), poco a poco, all in it’s due time.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build, 

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak, 

a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

Much love from Spain,

Amber